Te Herenga Waka’s creative writing programme and publisher are helping put Pasifika writers ‘in the main arena’.
Pasifika voices are breaking through the Aotearoa New Zealand literary scene and Te Herenga Waka’s International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) and Victoria University Press (VUP) are supporting their diverse perspectives.
In 2019, the Emerging Pasifika Writer in Residency was established at the IIML for writers at an early stage of their careers.
Leki Jackson-Bourke was the first writer awarded the position and says the experience gave him the space, time, and luxury to experiment and create.
“I don’t think I’ve had a period like that in my writing journey where I’ve been able to create so much. That time was really beneficial for my growth as a writer, with being able to find out it’s okay to take risks.
“That’s where playwright Victor Rodger came in as my mentor. He helped me channel my authentic voice and be brave with what I wanted to say.”
As a writer of Tongan, Niuean, and Samoan descent, Leki says he uses his writing to celebrate similarities and highlight differences between the three cultures.
“It’s important because a lot of Pacific things can become a tick box. Even the term Pasifika doesn’t fully honour individual cultures within the Pacific. And if you aren’t going to tell your own story, someone else will and they’re not going to get all the facts right.”
Victor was writer in residence at the IIML in 2017—the first writer of Samoan descent to be awarded this position.
He is now convenor of the IIML’s Māori and Pasifika Creative Writing Workshop—Te Hiringa a Tuhi. This course is for students interested in writing from Māori or Pasifika perspectives. Victor says the benefit of the workshop is it allows students to be on a level playing field.
“There’s an implicit understanding of things. I imagine that, previously, if students had been the one, or one of two [Pasifika or Māori people in the room], a level of translation in terms of lived experience would’ve been necessary for some students. It lets us go in much quicker,” he says.
“It’s important because a lot of Pacific things can become a tick box. Even the term Pasifika doesn’t fully honour individual cultures within the Pacific. And if you aren’t going to tell your own story, someone else will and they’re not going to get all the facts right.”
Victor was also integral to establishing the role of kaitautoko after the IIML saw the success from his pastoral care of students when he was writer in residence. This role is now known as the Māori and Pasifika student liaison and looks after the interests of Māori and Pasifika students at the IIML.
Current Master of Arts student Tamara Tulitua began her writing journey at the IIML through Te Hiringa a Tuhi and says the experience was refreshing.
“I’ve never, in any academic setting, been able to feel like I can bring my whole self and I didn’t have to leave anything at the door. That was quite a revelation for me,” she says.
Tamara is passionate about the positive impact diverse voices can have on the community.
“Every single time another marginalised voice is heard and put in the main arena, I promise you, that’s a generation that’s making a way forward. It’s piercing a hole so more of us can push through and it’s very profound. I don’t think the value can be understated.”
In 2021, VUP has also undertaken the ground-breaking publication of Pasifika voices through its book Sista, Stanap Strong!, an anthology of Ni-Vanuatu female writers, co-edited by IIML alumni Mikaela Nyman and Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen. This book’s creation was achieved across geographical, ethnic, and linguistic barriers, with its editors working from New Zealand and Vanuatu to connect with its contributors to achieve this new body of work.
The Savage Coloniser Book, by Tusiata Avia, received the 2021 Ockham New Zealand Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry. Tusiata is the first Pasifika woman to receive this award.
Later in 2021, VUP will publish Sea and Saltwater, a selection of the late Te Herenga Waka associate professor and Pasifika studies director Teresia Teaiwa’s scholarly and creative writings. In 2022, VUP will publish Beats of the Pa’u, a debut collection of short stories by Cook Islands New Zealand writer Maria Samuela.
Tusiata says the future of writing in New Zealand means making more space for diverse voices.
“People need to open their parameters of what literature is. It’s not like ‘how can we find the Pacific poets?’ We’re there. Lots of us.”
